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Comment by ankyth27 | Hacker News Reader

A professional football player starts playing at the age of 4-5, a professional dancer starts practicing right from childhood, but I see most people only get interested in code when they need a job and they start fearing. Our education system should introduce problem solving and coding right from primary classes, teachers should be trained exclusively for these, and the big G, F and others should collaborate with government/NGOs to produce better curriculum and teachers.

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Disagree. Coding is one of hundreds of skills that can lead to a good career, and coding is absolutely not for everyone.

Football/dance are extra-curriculars, I am all for coding being an option early on (high school?) but not anytime before then. If a kid shows an interest in coding, they'll find a way. And parents nowadays are more aware of it as a viable option

Even if this seems worth it anyway, a teacher "trained" in coding is not a programmer I would trust to teach my kids coding, and hiring CS majors would be monumentally too expensive. At the end of the day it's not practical.

Why not before high school? As someone teaching kids, they grasp the concepts just fine at young ages and if the material is presented in a fun and personalized way, they tend to enjoy it more than other subjects (depending on how those are taught).

Actively exposing your child to coding will greatly increase the likelihood they pursue it later on.

Our pricing is as low as $22.50 per hour with a friend, which I consider pretty affordable compared to many extra curriculars!

There's no issue with having an introduction to computer classes and the fundamentals to some, but the original comment was more in the line of making it a mandatory class. They need exposure, but it shouldn't be forced on them. Fostering an interest is far better than demanding kids sit in a 40 minute class to learn functions.

Also $22.50 may seem cheap, but it is quite expensive especially if a family has 2-3 kids that they'd like to enroll.

> a teacher "trained" in coding is not a programmer

And if the "trained teacher" is a programmer, what is stopping them from taking a $100,000 programming job over their $40,000 teaching job (That caps out at $70,000 after 20 years)?

I agree on the point that coding is not for everyone. But basic skills like problem-solving could help kids explore more things as well. I correct my point here and assert that like other extra-curricular activities, the impact of problem-solving should also and possibilities of what code can do, could also be taught at primary level. It could at least motivate some kids to pursue it further, so schools could play an important role in finding that motivation/interest. We don't need rockstar coders to teach fundamentals of programming, rather we should teach children how to learn and do basic handholding, and to guide them on the path ahead on either online courses or code camps. Thanks again for your viewpoint it was genuinely helpful and appropriate.

I have to disagree entirely here. We shouldn't be forcing kids to learn a singular skill early on, but allowing them to explore all areas of interests.

Thanks for your viewpoint, I strongly believe that it sounds more logical. I was suggesting to learn problem-solving in the beginning and gradually progressing it to coding. Interschool/college code camps may take it from there. Exploring many areas of interest in the beginning years of life definitely has an advantage.

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